Design for Living

Synopsis

Design for Living follows the fortunes of Gilda, Otto and Leo, a trio of decadent 30-something artists who travel from Paris to London to New York as their fame increases. The complex and revolving relationships between the three conclude themselves in a highly provocative manner, flying in the face of convention and their public profile. The notion of a ménage a trois, shocking in 1932 when the play was written is still provocative today and Coward's play has much to tell us about celebrity status, sexual mores and the nature of fidelity.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 16 September 2010

Noel Coward’s 1933 ménage à trois, or “disgusting three-sided erotic hotchpotch,” is as good as any of his better-known plays and comes up fresh as paint in Anthony Page’s Old Vic revival.

Gilda is an interior decorator, Leo a playwright and Otto a painter. They shuttle between Paris, London and New York like three naughty children, three intertwined (dis)graces, relishing their own bohemian debauchery, and professional success, until Gilda’s dependence on a successful art dealer (his dullness and moral righteousness brilliantly conveyed by Angus Wright) prompts a showdown.

Not seen in London for 15 years, and first “re-discovered” for the modern theatre when Michael Blakemore directed Vanessa Redgrave as Gilda, Page finds revelatory new rhythms in Design for Living, especially in the last act when Leo and Otto return like avenging angels using their smart veneer, and Coward’s devastat...

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Latest User Review

rds - 25 November 2010:

I think I can see where the director, Anthony Page, is coming from - well I think I do? You see I would never have thought of casting Andrew Scott as Leo - he's too much of today, but if I wanted to make the characters more accessible to today's audience, that is to say more "believable", then that would be one of the ways to do it. I've seen my fair share of Coward's plays over the years and they are period pieces, but to simply perform them as they were done originally would be to lose much of the impact they first had. Sure it would be stylish and fun and everyone would have had a good time, but what of the underlying subtext? The sets were great but when set take precedence over performance mmhhh?! Better luck next time perhaps, but isn't that the reason we keep coming back time after time after.......X ...

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